Wednesday, October 24. 2012

In 1537 Jane Seymour, the third wife of England's King Henry VIII, died 12 days after giving birth to Prince Edward, later King Edward VI. In 1861 the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent as Justice Stephen J. Field of California transmitted a telegram to President Lincoln. In 1931 the George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, opened to traffic. In 1939 nylon stockings were sold publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, DE. In 1940 the 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. In 1945 the United Nations officially came into existence as its charter took effect. In 1962 the US blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis officially began under a proclamation signed by President Kennedy. In 1980 the merchant freighter SS Poet departed Philadelphia bound for Port Said, Egypt, with a crew of 34 and a cargo of grain; it disappeared en route. In 2001NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Mars. In 2002 Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo were arrested in connection with the Washington-area sniper attacks.